New CMP Marksmanship Park in Utah

This may be old news to some but somewhat exciting if it comes to pass.

Excerpt from the  UT State R&P Assn. newsletter:


"CMP Plans Big New Range Near Payson, Utah
Talladega, Alabama is CMP’s 500 Acre Marksmanship Park, but plans may be on the way to out do it. It is located two miles from the famous stock car speedway, where noise is king! A few gunshots at the Talladega Range don’t bother neighbors either.
Tentative planning on the Payson site includes a 1,314 Acre site south of Utah Lake if a US Bureau of Land Management (USBLM) land exchange gets approved in 2023. Modeled a little bit after the Ben Avery Shooting Facility in Phoenix, Arizona, the Utah range will include a 10 position ELR (Extended Long Range, 1760 yd), a 60-firing point 800, 900, 1000 yard range, a Midrange and 600 yd Across the Course rifle range, and pistol bays, a 5 stand Skeet/Wobble Trap range, sporting clays, an archery course, 4 action pistol bays, and clubhouse. All ranges will have electronic targets, and pistol ranges will have turning targets.
CMP is reported to be ready to invest $35 million dollars for the facility. It is possible in the future that the range may have a CMP store like Talladega in which military surplus firearms would be sold."

Boy, that would be GREAT! I have a bunch of family around SLC, so that would be a bit more incentive to go there for matches. And there’s a killer fly shop in Orem called Fly fish Food. I love tying flies, suck at fishing, but I can spin a descent fly, lol.

CMP Talladega Al is useless to most of the population of AL except for a once in awhile trip.  It’s like they did it on purpose.

Why is it useless to most of the population of Alabama? Did what on purpose?

Try driving from the west (leftist) coast to attend a national caliber match. You are so lucky.

Wes Lorenz wrote:Try driving from the west (leftist) coast to attend a national caliber match.

Southwest Nationals (rifle match).  2023 match just finished two days ago.  (Sunday.)  Weblink to match page:  https://southwestnationals.net/

TonyH wrote:Why is it useless to most of the population of Alabama? Did what on purpose?

It’s in about the worst spot you could put it in the state, it’s in a crap spot for the two major universities we have, so very hard for shooting teams. Anybody in the southern part of the state you can forget, I’m 2 1/2 hours away and I’m in Auburn add at least another hour for Montgomery, still a good ride from Birmingham and even further to Huntsville, Gee Whiz if you would have put it out in the sticks around Montgomery about 2/3’s of the states population could use it on a regular basis, instead of a special trip. It’s like they put it in a spot to fail.

Wes Lorenz wrote:Try driving from the west (leftist) coast to attend a national caliber match. You are so lucky.

Luck had nothing to do with it, I moved out of Ca. on purpose,

Cmysix wrote:

TonyH wrote:Why is it useless to most of the population of Alabama? Did what on purpose?

It’s in about the worst spot you could put it in the state, it’s in a crap spot for the two major universities we have, so very hard for shooting teams. Anybody in the southern part of the state you can forget, I’m 2 1/2 hours away and I’m in Auburn add at least another hour for Montgomery, still a good ride from Birmingham and even further to Huntsville, Gee Whiz if you would have put it out in the sticks around Montgomery about 2/3’s of the states population could use it on a regular basis, instead of a special trip. It’s like they put it in a spot to fail.

They put it less than a mile or two from the Talladega Super speedway.  Down in that region thousands of racing fans have no problem traveling to that facility up to 5 times a year. Plus there are obviously hotel accommodations to suit.  When I shot highpower in Washington State, I had no issue with driving 250 miles one way to shoot.  So I fail to understand why this location is an issue?

Most of those ranges are just a minor commute from Oregon.  Even if I had the time and budget. 

I live in Auburn and I have no problems with the Talladega location. I shoot up there several times a month. It only takes me 1.5 hours to get there and it is easy driving except for the last couple miles.

It doesn't matter where they put it. Someone would gripe about it. If you look at a map, it is east-centrally located in the state.

Would be nice if CMP put these ranges in all four corners of the U.S. I mentioned that to Orest Michaels after they built the TMP location. His reply was "keep buying rifles..."

Any State west of UT is not firearms friendly…..and the SLC area is about the middle of the country North to South. Availability of suitable land to develop a facility such as this probably played a big part in the selection process as well.

What so they can keep raising match fees and prices on firearms I have had about enough of the Cmp!

54roundball wrote:What so they can keep raising match fees and prices on firearms I have had about enough of the Cmp!

Well,there is always NRA. 

54roundball wrote:What so they can keep raising match fees and prices on firearms I have had about enough of the Cmp!

From a match sanctioning perspective, the CMP is actually cheaper than the NRA….

If the CMP is using all the dues they have gathered from me in years past, reasonable or not, to open a new facility so folks in the western parts of this nation have easer access to competitive shooting sports, I’m all for it!